The Hello, Goodbye Window
The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norman Juster, illustrated by Chris Raschka (Hyperion Books for Children, 2005)
In this winner of the Caldecott Medal, the window may look like a regular kitchen window, but the young narrator of the story knows that it’s not. It’s a window for greetings and goodbyes, peekaboos, making silly faces, and blowing kisses- the stuff that makes up the most important of everyday rituals. The narrator surely understands this:
When I get my own house someday
I’m going to have a special
Hello, Goodbye Window, too.
By that time I might be a Nanna myself.
I don’t know who the Poppy will be,
but I hope he can play the harmonica.
